Well, folks, I was hoping to share the latest HorsePLAY! LIVE HD video with you guys buuuutttt.. Twitch has been funky. We’ll get into that but time is of the essence! Here’s last week’s video instead. It’s relevant.

We have some HUGE news and time-sensitive items so be sure to read on, gang.. There are critical items for Kickstarter and Twitch users here!

HorsePLAY! EP34 is up on iTunes, Stitcher, and our official GANG podcasts feed. Here is the embedded MP3 player, for your convenience. In this episode, a girl joins us. JanelNo5, a rising Twitch superstar, makes this show a non-sausage fest – YAY!

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-131961/TS-886947.mp3

Kickstarter: Fire With Fire PvP Tower Defense Game

First things first, Fire With Fire is close to being funded but we only have a couple of days. On Sunday, August 10th 2014, this Kickstarter project comes to an end. Currently, we need around 300 backers if everyone pledges the $6 or more (the minimum is $1). We can make someone’s dreams come true! #GeeksUnite

Other indie games we are excited about on Kickstarter include Factions and Bacon Man, which end on August 10th and 15th, respectively. Spread the word. It only takes a few minutes to help good content go viral!

Major Twitch Changes & What You Need To Know TODAY

Twitch has wasted no time mixing things up now that Google is backing them with their bottomless pit of munnies. Justin.tv closes it’s doors which leads us to believe Twitch will start to compete with Ustream, Playstream, and other streaming platforms. This worries me a bit.

My concern is that the focus will shift from gaming and Twitch will become as noisy as YouTube. This is great for established video personalities but terribad for the rest of us. Let’s not forget that the Twitch brand implies gaming (i.e. twitch gaming like we see in MOBAs and FPS games). Diversifying content would ruin the brand identity. I guess only time will tell!

Hosting is one of the biggest features to come. After months of testing, now everyone can now host their favorite streamers on their own channel. This is a great alternative to simulcasting or Twitch raids, but it will not replace it. There are some key distinctions between hosting and comparable tactics:

All followers and views go to the hosted streamer.

The host will not generate video archives.

Hosting channels will not appear live on the mobile app (yet).

Twitch CEO has announced a new VOD policy on the official Twitch blog. Starting August 27th, past broadcasts will be removed unless there are highlights associated with them. Partnered streamers and Turbo users will have more time to work with their archives but everyone else will have a 3 to 14-day window to work with old videos.

During EP34, I went off on a rant because the changes to how Twitch handles VODs came suddenly. Sure, we saw the writing on the wall but now we have to hustle to make sure all that content we have created over months or years doesn’t go to waste. There are lots of things that need to be in place before Twitch enforces these changes.

Ironically, soon after our live show, I realized Twitch implemented quick exports and highlighting. Now you can do exports as a two-step process without loading up different pages and tabs. This was desperately needed. Sadly, I am noticing that YouTube is getting overloaded and bouncing back videos during batch jobs. Argh. BTW, they are aware of the server capacity issues (officially as of August 6th 10:50am PT).

Video highlighting is much easier and cleaner now. You can create multiple highlights during one session. Again, brilliant.. And this update actually works properly so YAY! You can also see all highlights associated with a source video at a glance AND export without creating a highlight first. This is far more intuitive so great job, Twitch!

The best part about this policy change is that it will remind Twitch streamers to do what they should be doing already: creating highlights and bookmarks. I can’t tell you how many channels I visit that are barren when they are offline. It’s quite sad.

Now that Google is in the mix, I am hoping for some SEO enhancements. Tagging, social integration, commenting, and enhanced search would rock. I would also love to see differentiation between live and archived content. This would give archived content far more value and give streamers like myself more of an edge by allowing us to create themed content and events.

To our fellow streamers, the best tip we can offer now is to make sure you not only click “Save Forever” on videos but also highlight and export whenever possible. Don’t forget to bookmark, too! It looks really seksy when you have a wide variety of content available on your channel when you’re offline. In some ways, I like the presentation better than what YouTube currently does.. But a little customization wouldn’t hurt here!

Oh wait.. We forgot the biggest update!

Copyrighted music on streams is now a no-no. Google is not enforcing strikes or other stupidity yet but they have gone back and retroactively muted all video segments where music is found.. Unless it is royalty-free or officially licensed (they are not set up for the latter yet, obviously).

We saw this coming but it sucks. We recommend avoiding song requests or background music all together because it will limit the value of your recordings, even if you focus 100% on the live experience. Of course, there is always the option of playing your own music for yourself or only having in-game music but be wary of games like Typing Of The Dead: Overkill, which uses licensed music. I learned the hard way to lower game music just to be safe; otherwise, no YouTube highlights, which sucks!

1.2 Billion Passwords Stolen.. Google Responds

Holds Security of Milwaukee reports that Russian hackers have stolen 1.2 billion passwords to online accounts worldwide. The affected sites and platforms have remained undisclosed but, just to play it safe, you may want to change your passwords. I recommend using unique passwords for your most critical resources like online banking, control panels, and government sites, just to be extra safe.

Google has responded to this news by offering rewards to more secure sites. Using SSL, encrypted passwords, login lockdowns/timeouts, CAPTCHA, and other security methods will increase your search rankings. I wonder if there will be less of a penalty for longer load times since security hardening tends to compromise performance.

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue Confirmed After Leak

Ubisoft confirms that Assassin’s Creed: Rogue is coming this year as a Christmas Season 2014 release alongside the highly-anticipated “next gen” Assassin’s Creed: Unity. This news comes after a video was leaked. Now console gamers on both sides of the generation gap will be covered.

We have mixed feelings about this. Personally, I love the AC series (though the original is really hard to go back to now) but I think this overkill. Major franchises like this should not be annualized because quality suffers and discerning consumers are overwhelmed with too many options. Yes, game publishers, not all of us spend $5000 or more on video games each year, no matter how hardcore we may be.

I feel gamers have plenty of content to catch up on and enjoy as it is. This news only frustrates me. I may be in the vocal minority here but what do you guys think? Let us know via voicemail or in the comments below.

HorsePLAY! LIVE Where Geeks Come To Play!

Our First HorsePLAY! LIVE iTunes Review

We usually don’t push for iTunes reviews because we realize people are using other platforms.. And iTunes isn’t very intuitive when it comes to leaving reviews.

That said, we got our very first iTunes review from Normii477 from Zombie Cast and Knuckleballer Radio. Thank you, Normii! Your words really touch our hearts and get us even more fired up to bring you more great content. I agree that what I love most about our show is the chemistry Obi and I have since we contrast and compliment each other so well (some would say we are a married couple LOL). Of course, the live interaction on the GeekyAntics Twitch channel keeps things interesting every week. We love you guys – even the trolls!

You guys really get what we are about and that’s awesome. We want HorsePLAY! LIVE to be the radio show and interactive platform where geeks can get their fix on a wide variety of discussions, events, and news. Keep the reviews coming, gang!

Stitcher is still our preferred mobile podcast app so please use their Facebook integration to leave us comments and give us some thumbs up lovin. Don’t forget to tune into us on AllGames.com every Thursday at around 5pm Eastern. AllGames.com has their own live chat – join the IRC channel and tell them the GANG at HorsePLAY! LIVE sent ya. You’ll get a warm welcome, just like we did when we joined the network! BTW, we’d LOVE more voicemail messages and bumpers at (206) 415-4987 – save our live listeners the torture of having to listen to us rant for two hours or more. *wink-wink*

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